The Old Bag Company: Good buy guide

Maggie O'Sullivan takes a look at The Old Bag company's range of practical and
hard-wearing beach and travel bags.

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Charlotte dotty bag in choc ice, £34

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Sophie baby changing bag, £39

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Emma large backpack in raspberry, £29.99

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Sophie bag (left), £28

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Ellie junior bag in bubblegum, £18

By Maggie O'Sullivan

4:54PM BST 26 Aug 2008

What is it?

Four years ago, Devon mother of five Sally Hurst found herself on a beach with her family, surrounded by an assortment of plastic bags containing all the usual detritus: soggy swimming togs, beach games, books and picnic food. What she needed, she decided, was a good-looking bag that would carry everything. The result was The Old Bag Company, whose bags are now sold through 300 retailers in Britain, as well as via The Old Bag Company website at www.theoldbagcompany.com.

Why buy?

As Sally Hurst discovered, the perfect beachbag is as difficult to find as the perfect bikini. If it’s big enough, it doesn’t have internal pockets to keep items separate; if it looks good, it’s too delicate to dump on the sand. The Old Bag Company’s bags are attractive, practical and hard-wearing. Some of them have an external pocket for a newspaper so that your copy of The Sunday Telegraph and that sticky bottle of sun-protection cream need never come into contact. Don’t like dots? There’s a dot-free version of each style.